


Home is where the heart lies: and my heart lies with you.

by Chromiad



Category: L.A. Noire
Genre: Getting Together, Home away from Home, It’s just sorta there yknow??, M/M, No Dialogue, Not Beta Read, OH mentions of the war, Some headcanon?, Un-requited feelings ( but it’s not tho they just think it), and what happened to hank :(, idk how to tag this uhhh, lets get some hearts in the chat for loooooooveee~~, not much just that like... cole was there..., tags might change bc it’s super early and idk how to tag, wrote this in 20 mins because i had the idea....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25609357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chromiad/pseuds/Chromiad
Summary: (the title makes it sound sad, it’s not i promise)an exploration on what Cole and Stefan called home, and how they eventually found it in eachother. <3
Relationships: (Past) Cole Phelps/Hank Merill, Stefan Bekowsky/Cole Phelps
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Home is where the heart lies: and my heart lies with you.

Before the war Cole found a home in marie. Found home in the curve of her hips, the quirk of her smile when he asked her out. She was easy to fall into routine with, never asking too much, always knowing how Cole felt before he did. (maybe that’s just how women worked?) Marie was easy, easy to fall in love with, easy to keep loving, easy to keep in his heart over the war.

During the war Cole's home changed.

He would never admit it of course, but Hank Merrill became his light at the end of the tunnel. He wasn’t at all like Marie, he was rough edges that would cut you if you looked too hard, deep and morose eyes that would drown you in what he’d seen. Hank wasn’t easy to call home, they both knew that. 

After sugar loaf, Cole had no home for a long time.

He tried to fall back into routine with Marie, loving her was still easy, and she held such a large part of his heart. But she wasn’t home. Neither were his girls, though he wished he could find home in their cute smiles, their tears when daddy was finally home, their unbridled childish enthusiasm. They were also easy to love, but still not home. He had no clue why, his heart ached for him to find solace in his wife as he did before, but things had changed.

He had thought he would find a home in work. That as soon as he got to desk work in the LAPD he would drown himself in cases and never know another home. His short time with Ralph Dunn showed him just how easy that was. To dive back into the fray with nothing more than a gut intuition and one piece of evidence. 

Stefan never really had a home.

Sure he had his wonderful family who cared so deeply for him but, it never felt like home, never felt like how he knew it would. He knew Home would feel so much, more than this. All through his schooling he felt the same. Sure he’d find a home in the LAPD once he turned 18. He just ended up stuck in a dead patrol job for six years. Partners would pass him by and he knew none of them he’d even remember in a few months.

He had found a temporary home in Traffic.

As “everyone’s favourite Pole” it was easy to at least call the place home. He was liked, he was proficient at his job. It was like a motel, one with those fancy “free” soaps and good TV channels. It feels like a home away from home, a pause in between a road trip.

They didn’t expect each other.

Of course Stefans mouth got ahead of him and they got off on the wrong foot but, eventually they got along.  
Stefan found it easy to follow in Coles footsteps, from location to interview room and back. Cole made him want to try. Made him want to make something of himself finally. Stefan found a home in Coles proximity, in being partners and nothing more, by being near the man. Of course he wished to be more, but Stefan could live without that. As long as he kept Cole close, he was home.

Cole found this a little different.

It was almost like a replay of his past. Like Stefan was Marie and they just fell in line together. Whatever they did it was coordinated between the two of them in a way no others could understand. Cole found it easy again. Easy to listen, and be heard. He had fallen in love with Bekowsky not long after he called him home.  
It was a certainty in Cole's mind that eventually they would fall together. Even if an outrageous thought to have, he held onto it with his heart. Hoping whenever they celebrated a case, or drove eachother home.

Of course eventually it was bound to happen. 

Stefan was less conspicuous with his feelings as he thought, and Cole was rash and quick to action. It was a universal constant that they would eventually, they both believed it to be true, so of course it was. They had found a home, and while Cole would be promoted and move on, Stefan knew he would always be his home.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! ty for reading :9 i had such bad brain rot for these two but all my other fics take brain power to write.... If u notice any mistakes please point them out!! i’m very dumb and tired rn so there might be some?
> 
> Thank u again for reading and have a good day/afternoon/night <33


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